Page:The Heimskringla; or, Chronicle of the Kings of Norway Vol 3.djvu/275

KINGS OF NOHWAY. 263 enticed him from home with them, saying that they saga xiv. intended to go to another district, where they had some needful business, and inviting him to go with them. They had with them a farm-servant who knew their purpose. They went in a boat along the shore of a lake which is called Rands lake, and landed at a ness called Skiftesand, where they went on shore, and amused themselves a while. Then they went to a retired place, and commanded their servant-man to strike the priest with an axe-hammer. He struck the priest so hard that he swooned ; but when he recovered he said, "Why are ye playing so roughly with me?" They replied, '^ Although nobody has told thee of it before, thou shalt now find the consequence of what thou hast done." They then upbraided him ; but he denied their accusations, and besought God and the holy King Olaf to judge between them. Then they broke his leg-bones, and dragged him bound to the forest with them ; and then they put a string around his head, and put a board under his head and shoulders, and made a knot on the string, and bound his head fast to the board. Then the elder brother, Einar, took a Avedge, and put it on the priest's eye, and the servant who stood beside him struck upon it with an axe, so that the eye flew out, and fell upon the board. Then he set the pin upon the other eye, and said to the servant, Strike now more softly." He did so, and the wedge sprang from the eye-stone, and tore the eyelid loose. Then Einar took up the eye- lid in his hand, and saw that the eye-stone was still in its place ; and he set the wedge on the cheek, and when the servant struck it the eye-stone sprang out upon the cheek-bone. Thereafter they opened his mouth, took his tongue and cut it off, and then untied his hands and his head. As soon as he came to him- self, he thought of laying the eye-stones in their place under the eyelids, and pressing them with both hands s 4